The British Library's Love Letters

Love Letters: 2000 Years of Romance, a title published by the British Library, is the first ever anthology to reproduce original love letters in each of the writers’ own hand. Featuring letters drawn from the Library's unique and vast collections, the romance spans from 168 BC to the 20th century and offers a rare insight into the intimate thoughts, feelings and desires of iconic individuals such as Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII, Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde.

Edited and written by Andrea Clarke, Curator of Early Modern Historical Manuscripts, Love Letters displays and transcribes in full 25 letters with engaging commentaries about the correspondents and their circumstances, as well as portraits of the writers and recipients. It includes letters by figures such as Henry VIII, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Horatio Lord Nelson, Oscar Wilde and Mervyn Peake.

From the raw passion of Rupert Brooke’s letter to Cathleen Nesbitt - ‘I will kiss you till I kill you’ - to the hurt and dejected pre-wedding note from Charles Dickens to his fiancée - ‘do not trifle with me’ - Love Letters exposes ‘every shade of love’ through these personal and private letters between lovers over hundreds of years.

Highlights include:

• Charlotte Brontë to Professor Constantin Héger, November 1844 - infatuated with her Belgian Professor, Charlotte wrote letters to him and despite the fact that Professor Héger tore up three of them and threw all four away, incredibly four of her letters have survived. Curiously, it is thanks to his wife - who retrieved them and sewed them back together - that we are able to read them today.

• Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas, January 1897 - the first and last pages of ‘De Profundis’, the 50,000-word letter that Wilde wrote to Douglas from Reading Gaol between December 1896 and March 1897. As well as charting Wilde’s spiritual growth through the physical and emotional hardships of his imprisonment, the letter is a bitter - yet remarkably tender and forgiving - indictment of the man who he felt had helped to destroy his life and reputation.

• Mervyn Peake to his wife, Maeve, 1949 - previously unpublished, Peake’s wonderfully illustrated and heartfelt letter was written just before his wife went to hospital to give birth. He signs off, ‘Maevie. I am in love. Deeply. Un-endingly, for ever and ever.’

Andrea Clarke, author of Love Letters, says: “In an age of emails, tweets and texted ‘I luv u’s’, Love Letters invites us into a privileged realm and reminds us why the written word is so special. We are delighted to share these handwritten, intimate exchanges between couples - some famous, others now lost to history - with a wider audience.” To celebrate the publication of Love Letters the Library will hold an event in February with special guests, including acclaimed biographer Anne Sebba, who will join British Library curator Andrea Clarke, for a pre-Valentine's Day dip into the most intimate world of the handwritten love letter, with fascinating readings, discussion and insights into the private relationships of people across centuries and cultures.

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest research libraries. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. The Library's collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million separate items representing every age of written civilisation and includes books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, photographs, newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken languages. Up to 10 million people visit the British Library website - www.bl.uk - every year where they can view up to 4 million digitised collection items and over 40 million pages.